Internationally Published Study Confirms J.D. Irving, Limited Forests and Forest Products Manufacturing are a Significant Carbon Sink over the Next 50 Years

Saint John NB: J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) has collaborated
with the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at the University of
New Brunswick to produce a comprehensive first-of-its-kind report on the carbon
balance of JDI woodlands and forest products operations.

The two-year study,
funded by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
(NSERC) and J.D. Irving, Limited, has found that JDI forests will sink (absorb
versus emit) about 92 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next 50 years.
That's the equivalent of the entire emissions of the Maritime Provinces for one
year or 18.4 million cars off the road for one year.

A peer-reviewed article
titled, "A Comprehensive Greenhouse Gas Balance for a Forest
Company Operating in Northeast North America - R.E. Cameron, C.R. Hennigar,
D.A. MacLean, G.W. Adams and T.A. Erdle" was published in the most recent edition of the
Journal of Forestry - the most widely circulated scholarly forestry journal in
the world.

"This is one
of the first studies in Canada to take such a detailed look at a very
vertically integrated company across all its forest product activities,” said
Dr. Chris Hennigar, at the UNB Faculty of Forestry and Environmental
Management.

The study took into
account all greenhouse gas emission sources - from the harvesting and trucking
of wood from the forest through to the emissions from the manufacturing of
forest products.

"We wanted to
include everything for this life-cycle accounting of our forest
operations," said Greg Adams, Research and Development Manager, JDI
Woodlands. "We included how our forests are projected to grow over the
next 100 years, as well as all the activity that goes on in the forest like
tree planting, harvesting, and transportation. We also measured all energy
sources used in JDI forest and forest product activities and we included the
carbon storage in all forest products."

By combining all the carbon sinks and carbon emissions associated with JDI's entire woodlands
and forest products operations, the forest carbon model indicates a total of 58
million tonnes of carbon dioxide will be sequestered in the next 50 years.

"JDI forest
and forest products operations are not emitters of carbon dioxide, but in fact
the entire operations will be sinking (absorbing) a million tonnes of carbon
dioxide equivalents, on average, every year over the next 50 years," Adams
said.

Beyond the 50-year
window, modeling indicates the company will remain a sink or carbon-neutral for
many years based on today's forest management, processes, products and energy
profiles. An important contributor to this positive environmental result is the
company's almost 60-year commitment to tree planting which will cross the 900
million mark this year - a national record in Canada.

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View Greg Adams and
Dr. Hennigar explaining the research and results on [YouTube].